


The Coffee Run

by Requiem



Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Amelia has Feelings for the first time and doesn't know what to do, F/F, Gen, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, ft. Zach and Andrew being ridiculously in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 14:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Requiem/pseuds/Requiem
Summary: There's nothing left for Amelia in Ophir except to pack up her dad's things, sell the house, and get back on the road. But when her childhood friend Zach takes her to his favourite coffee shop (less to catch up and more to show off his boyfriend, she suspects), she meets someone there who might just change her mind.





	The Coffee Run

Nothing about Ophir stands out to Amelia from the other towns she'd driven through to get here. From the same roofs of corrugated iron painted orange by the sand to the single main road that most people can't drive down fast enough to get somewhere that's not the great nothingness of the desert, there is absolutely nothing special about Ophir, except the fact that it was once home.

It'd just been her and her dad in their tiny shack of a house less than half the size of the shed out back where her dad worked on his inventions. Tractors, wind turbines, moisture vaporators; he cobbled together both practical solutions and more fantastical ones with just scrap metal and his brilliant mind, and though few of them ever made it out of the shed, he also did enough repair work to support himself and Amelia.

But like every other teenager living in a small town, Amelia had dreamed of getting out, of visiting places like Junction Complex where the people lived fast and died young and the city never slept because there was simply too much to do. Unlike every other teenager, Amelia wasn't going to sit around waiting for her dreams to come to her, so she'd packed her bags, said her goodbyes, and taken off in search of a life worth living.

And now, her dad's dead, and when she leaves this time, there'll be no reason to ever come back.

-

"I can't believe you came back." It's Zach, the boy who lives next door with his dad Sean. He's not much of a boy now, in the same way that Amelia isn't the girl that had spent many an afternoon with him commiserating over being raised by single fathers married to their jobs. But even though Sean spent long hours away from home working security at the mines a forty-five minute drive away and her dad was only out back in the shed, she feels like Zach got the better deal.

"Well fuck you too," Amelia says by way of greeting. "My dad died." It's the first time she's said it out loud, and she clenches her jaw as hard as she can to forestall the tears that threaten to well up.

"I know. I'm sorry." Zach hops the fence like he always does since the gate only has two modes, stuck or falling off, and comes towards Amelia with his arms out, ready to wrap her in a hug.

She stops him with a hand on his chest; if he hugs her now, she will definitely burst into tears, and she's not doing that in the middle of the overgrown front yard where everyone can see. Everyone being nobody at the moment—no one’s poked their head out the window at the sound of her car so they mustn’t be home—but it's the principle of the matter.

"I just came to see if I'd left anything I wanted behind, maybe look through my dad's shed before the estate agents sell everything off." She'd arranged everything over the phone and almost didn't come back this one last time, but then one night, she'd felt a sudden, vivid panic at possibly losing something she'd meant to come back for, and had left the motel at first light and driven all the way here.

"You should come by the shop and say goodbye to everyone," Zach says.

"Maybe."

"And come over for dinner tonight. My dad will be home, and I'm sure he'd be glad to see you again."

"Maybe."

Amelia intends to take Zach up on his offer since it's better than trying to find something to cook herself, but she makes the mistake of starting her inspection of the house in her dad's bedroom, and finds a row of framed pictures of her at varying ages lined up on the dresser, the only decoration in the room besides the huge windmill clock on the wall that doesn't even work.

Amelia gently picks up the leftmost picture—she's about two years old and her dad is holding her in his arms, standing in front of the house he's built with his own hands—and clutches it to her chest as she lays down on the bed. The sheets and pillows are dusty and make her sneeze, and if they make her eyes water too, it's easier just to let the tears fall.

She falls asleep and wakes up late into the night, far too late to impose on Zach and Sean for dinner. Amelia takes the picture she's still holding and gathers up all the other ones from the dresser and puts them in her room, then splashes some water on her face and heats up a can of soup for dinner. She eats it right out of the container in one of the two armchairs in front of the little TV in the living room, and tries not to think about how long it's been since she'd seen her dad in the other one.

She stays up into the early hours of the morning, searching the rest of the house for anything that holds enough sentiment to be worth keeping, and finally collapses into her own bed at around four o'clock, waking up again at ten. She'll leave the shed for tomorrow, she decides, and spend today showing her face around town one last time like Zach had suggested.

It's another scorching, sunny day in Ophir—big surprise—and Amelia's already sweating by the time she walks into the Technomancers, the only repair shop in town that also takes on jobs from the surrounding towns that their mechanics can't handle. Amelia's dad used to spend a few hours a week working here, and she's familiar enough with its layout that she can duck into the break room without being seen.

And because the shittiest week of her life isn’t letting up yet, there's someone in the break room. Not just anyone, but Ian, the owner of the shop.

He's a kind man that means well, Amelia knows, but this just means when he asks her questions about how she's feeling and whether there's anything he can do to help, he's doing it because he actually cares, and Amelia can't tell him to fuck off with a clear conscience. Then the shop-side door to the break room slams open and Zach comes in, muttering a sheepish apology when Ian frowns disapprovingly at him.

"Amelia, you came!" Zach says, his face lighting up when he sees her.

_Help me_, Amelia says with her eyes. It's really just an intense stare, but Zach will know what she means. _Get me out of here_.

"I was just about to get the guys a round of coffee," Zach says. "Wanna come? We can catch up."

"Sure. Thanks, Ian. Maybe we can talk later," Amelia lies, and can't get out of the break room fast enough.

-

"Since when are you the coffee boy?" she asks once they've left the shop. "Isn't that what apprentices are for?"

"I like to get out once in a while," Zach says defensively. "You know, stretch my legs, get some fresh air."

"You do plenty of walking around in the shop, and if I had to use one word to describe the air here, it sure as hell would not be 'fresh'. You don't even like coffee."

"It's been ten years. People change."

"You're just slacking off, aren't you? The diner's not even this way." It might have been ten years, but Amelia's not going to forget the only place in town to get a milkshake, burger, and fries after school. It's also where people go to get coffee in the morning, and cocktails in the evening.

"We're not going to the Vory. There's a coffee shop just down the end of this road."

"Since when does Ophir have a coffee shop?"

"It's got two, actually, but this is the only one worth going to. You'll like it, just wait and see." Zach pushes open the door of a shop with some longwinded name scrawled in elegant gold cursive on a black background.

"You're telling me that this tiny-ass town with only one grocery store has two whole-ass coffee shops?" she yells after Zach, giving up on trying to decipher the name and following him inside.

"We certainly don't half-ass coffee here," says a cheerful voice from behind the counter. "Welcome to Noctis Labyrinthus, how can I help you?"

"You can start by telling me what the hell kind of name that is for a coffee shop," Amelia says, squinting as her eyes adjust to the dim light.

"I don't know, the boss picked it. I just make the coffee." The man behind the counter who shrugs is vaguely familiar, but he only has one arm, and Amelia can't remember any one-armed people from Ophir.

"Hey there," Zach says, completely ignoring Amelia as he rests his hip against the counter, his voice low with a suggestive lilt at the end.

"Hey back," the man says with a smile.

Amelia's starting to understand why Zach doesn't mind doing the coffee run.

"I'm Zach."

"Andrew. What can I do for you?"

"It'll be easier if I show you."

"Oh, you're just going to—" Amelia can only stare as Zach leans across the counter and Andrew leans in from the other side, and they meet in the middle and start kissing like they're the only two people in the room.

"They're dating," says a new voice from somewhere to Amelia's left. She looks over to see a dark-haired woman leaning against the wall, doing a terrific job of blending in with it.

"But they just introduced themselves to each other," Amelia says helplessly, still not quite able to process what's happening.

"They do this every time." The woman has a resigned look on her face. "Every day, at least once a day, except on Sundays, because we're closed then, which is the only reason I have as much sanity left as I do."

"Well, I suppose there's not much else to do around here for entertainment."

The woman laughs, and Amelia sticks out her hand. "Amelia, but you don't need to remember that, 'cause I won't be staying long."

"Niesha." She shakes Amelia's hand and gives her a quick once-over as if that'll tell her why Amelia's only passing through.

To Amelia's right, the kissing finally seems to have stopped.

"So, do you come here often?" Andrew asks breathlessly.

"I might have to start if it means I get to see you."

When Amelia looks over, Zach and Andrew are holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes.

"Kill me," Niesha says, not bothering to lower her voice.

Amelia takes pity on her and orders a chocolate frappe—diners sell milkshakes, and this is a coffee shop, Niesha tells her with mock affront—since buying coffee seems to be the last thing on Zach's mind.

Niesha shoots her a grateful look and moves to the other end of the counter, adding ice, milk, and chocolate syrup to the blender and running it for what seems like an unnecessarily long time. Although, it does successfully mask the sound of Zach and Andrew kissing again. When Amelia peeks around the espresso machine that's blocking her view, Zach looks about ready to climb over the counter.

"Chocolate frappe for Amelia," Niesha says, setting a tall glass in front of her and adding whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles to the top before deftly sliding in a straw.

"Wow," Amelia says, forgetting that she'd actually wanted it to go.

"Better than a milkshake, right?" Niesha watches Amelia as she takes the first sip, and it should be creepy, but all Amelia notices is the way her eyes light up when Amelia makes a small, pleased sound. “Have you eaten? There’s cake, freshly baked.”

Amelia checks behind the espresso machine again; Zach and Andrew are talking in low voices, still holding hands and now touching foreheads. “What kind?”

Niesha serves Amelia tiny plates of four different kinds of cake, and explains the different fillings and flavours and where they source their ingredients from while she eats. By the time the plates are empty, nearly half an hour has passed since Amelia stepped into this poorly-lit coffee shop with the convoluted name that she’s already forgotten.

She’s also forgotten the reason they came here in the first place until the espresso machine starts up, and Zach wanders up to this end of the counter so he can continue talking to Andrew, brushing Amelia aside like she's not even there. Niesha rolls her eyes and lets out a long-suffering sigh as she stacks the plates and whisks them away with Amelia's empty glass.

It takes Andrew all of five minutes to make eight different cups of coffee to everyone's individual specifications from memory and write their names on the lids.

"Is that all for today?" he asks as he sets down the last one in the cup tray.

"Just one last thing." Zach leans in, presumably for a kiss that Niesha interrupts by pushing a large box between them.

"See you tomorrow," she says loudly, standing in front of Andrew.

Zach gives her a mournful look.

"As if you're not going to see each other this evening. Go back to work."

Andrew blows Zach a kiss over Niesha's shoulder as he and Amelia leave with the coffees and the box that contains an apple pie.

"Does everyone at the shop know why it takes you so long to buy coffee?" Amelia asks as they're walking back.

"I don't know, they’ve never asked me about it."

Amelia takes in the lovestruck look still on Zach's face. "Yeah, they know."

They're halfway back to the shop before Zach finally pulls his head out of the clouds and retaliates. "You're one to talk; I saw you and Niesha getting up close and personal with each other."

"Surprised you saw anything with how much face you and Andrew were sucking," Amelia shoots back.

"Ew, don't put it like that."

"I know what I saw. I can't believe Niesha puts up with that every day."

"She usually goes on break when I come in."

"I wonder why."

The others in the shop stop work for coffee and pie which would be the perfect moment to tell them all at once that she's leaving and never coming back, but Amelia's never liked being the centre of attention; she'll grab the people she cares to tell individually later.

"Hey, was that the same Andrew we went to school with?" she asks Zach as he has his slice of apple pie outside facing the scrap yard where carcasses of tools and vehicles beyond repair are stripped for parts.

"Yeah, you didn't recognise him?"

"Holy shit, you got the boy!" Amelia slaps Zach on the back, and he chokes on the food halfway down his throat. Oops. "Good for you." Andrew had been outgoing and well-liked in school, always surrounded by friends and admirers, completely unattainable for someone like Zach who rotated on the outer fringes of social circles without quite fitting in.

"Yeah, I did." Zach's got the ridiculous dreamy look back on his face.

"And no, I didn't recognise him. He changed his hair. Also, he had two arms the last time I saw him."

"After school, he worked in the mines for a while, then he had an accident one day."

"That sucks. Bet it was good for you, though, having him in town more often?"

Zach viciously elbows her in the side. "Do not say that to him."

"Who do you think I am? I would never. Stories about how you used to pine over him, on the other hand…"

Zach shoves her and she shoves him back, and for a moment, they're teenagers again, then the break room door opens and the mechanics come back out, and the moment is gone.

Amelia makes the requisite small talk, comes up with some bullshit about her adventures out on the road—she made deliveries and fixed cars and it wasn't the life she'd dreamed of, but it was _her_ life—and leaves when the nostalgic stories start coming out, before she can get sucked into an afternoon of reminiscing about the days she has no desire to relive.

She stops by the clinic on the main street to look in on the town doctor, Scott, who's somehow still in a job while also maintaining his position as the town drunk. He does seem to recognise her, at least, and babbles on for a few minutes about all the good times he'd had with her dad—mostly patching him up after some experiment gone awry—then offers to make Amelia a cup of tea, and promptly forgets she's there once his back is turned.

She visits other old haunts and encounters a classmate, Mara, at the diner. Mara’s started a punk rock band with her posse, whose entire repertoire probably consists entirely of songs about 'getting out of this town'. Amelia gives her a few tips about crossing the desert to Shadowlair, where to stay in the city, and which venues might be open to booking an unknown band. Before she knows it, night is falling, and she hasn't even said all her goodbyes, let alone made a start on her plans to sort out the shed.

Amelia heads over to Zach's place to cash in on the free dinner he'd offered, and runs into Sean about to leave for work.

"Zachariah told me you've put the house up for sale," he says after they've exchanged nods and she's already walked past him.

Amelia stops with one foot on the first step of the porch and looks over her shoulder. "Yeah, it'd be a waste to leave it empty when no one's using it."

Sean nods slowly. "I understand. Should you ever find yourself passing through, you'll always be welcome to stay here."

"Sure, thanks."

She's never coming back. She's gonna miss some of these people, but that's why they make postcards, isn’t it?

Zach looks surprised to see Amelia, but he welcomes her in, and she finishes mashing the potatoes while he throws some steaks into a pan.

They eat in the dining room with its matching tables and chairs, sideboard decorated with fresh flowers, and bay windows that let in the last of the sunlight, and talk about what's changed in the ten years Amelia's been away besides two coffee shops springing up in town.

After about an hour, Zach starts getting antsy, and the reason becomes clear when there's a knock on the door.

"Is that Andrew?" Amelia asks drily.

"Probably. Can you go out the back?"

Amelia makes a point of being terribly inconvenienced. "Fine. Wouldn't want to interrupt whatever you've got planned."

She leaves through the kitchen door while Zach goes to answer the front, and overhears him saying, "Hi there. Can I help you?"

"I think you're just the man I've been looking for," Andrew says.

Amelia pulls the kitchen door shut with a bang.

-

There's an astounding amount of junk in the shed, Amelia realises when she starts sifting through it the next day. She recognises a few parts she'd helped her dad scavenge from broken equipment and abandoned cars well over ten years ago, sitting untouched in corners and on shelves. Gradually accumulating this stuff over the years had made her desensitised to the mess, but seeing it through fresh eyes now, it all has to go.

She takes her car to the Technomancers and borrows a trailer, promising to bring back whatever usable parts she finds that she isn't keeping for herself. They also let her borrow Zach, who turns out to be more of a hindrance than a help, stopping every few minutes to enthuse about one of her dad's inventions that he's found.

"You're sure you want to get rid of all of this?" he asks for about the fifth time in two hours, winding up a toy truck and watching it zip maniacally about the workbench, catching it when it falls off the edge. "What if you change your mind later?"

"If you want anything, just take it. I'll even dump the whole lot at your house for you to go through if you want, but I'm living out of my car, and I can't be dragging this shit around 'just in case'."

"I could hang on to some stuff for you."

"I don't want it." Amelia points at the 'to toss' pile, and Zach reluctantly throws the truck on top.

At precisely ten thirty, he suggests taking a break, and Amelia gives him a knowing look.

"Coffee run?"

"You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I could do with a snack," Amelia concedes. She can still remember the cakes from yesterday, the way they'd burst into flavour then melted on her tongue. And Niesha hadn't even charged her for them; on second thought, maybe Amelia shouldn't go back, in case she remembers.

By the time she thinks of this though, she's in her car driving towards the shop whose name she still can't remember—it's where the bookstore used to be, that she remembers—with Zach in the passenger's seat vibrating with anticipation like Andrew hadn't stayed the night at his place and left early in the morning before his dad got back. In a town this small and with those two as plainly head-over-heels for each other as they are, their relationship is surely no secret, but Amelia supposes it gives them some sort of thrill to pretend that it is.

Niesha's at the counter this time, sitting on a stool and playing a game on her phone. She glances up when the bell above the door rings, turns her head towards the back of the shop, and yells with surprising strength, "Andrew! Your gentleman caller is here!"

There's a crash and muffled cursing from the kitchen. Niesha goes back to her game, unconcerned, while Zach rounds the counter and disappears through the doorway.

"You're still here," Niesha says when she realises she's not alone in the front of the shop. "I thought you weren't staying?"

"I’m just here to take care of some shit, then I’m gone." Then, because Niesha's looking at her curiously, Amelia adds, "My dad died." The words come easier now.

"Ah, I heard." Of course she has. "Were the two of you close?"

Sure, in the way two people who had no one else were close. "I don’t know. Doesn’t matter now anyway."

Niesha reaches under the counter and slides open the door of the display cupboard. "Blueberry walnut muffin?"

To go with the muffin, Niesha makes Amelia another chocolate frappe, and a coffee for herself. This time, they sit at a table instead of standing at the end of the counter.

"So when'd you come to Ophir?" Amelia asks. They seem close in age, and she's sure she would remember someone like Niesha at school. "Why'd you _stay_?"

Niesha idly stirs her coffee with a spoon, but she looks thoughtful, not avoidant. "I used to live in a town near here, Arina. A small mining town, nothing special. One night, when I was still very young, we were attacked by a band of scavengers. They took me and some of the other children to Shadowlair, and sold us to a factory. I was there for ten years before I got out, but I didn't know where I was or how to get home, so I lived on the streets, learned how to steal and pickpocket from the other kids, and finally scraped together enough money and information to get home. But there was nothing left; not a single living person, just the burned-out shells of old buildings."

"That's horrible," Amelia says, transfixed. She never would have guessed Niesha was hiding a past like that. Niesha, who looks so sophisticated and put-together, unlike Amelia, who'd put on yesterday's clothes in the morning and hadn't combed her hair because she'd thought she would be working in the shed all day. She hadn't even washed her hands before coming here, and she self-consciously wipes them on her overalls, which probably only serves to make them dirtier.

Niesha shrugs and stops stirring. In the ensuing silence, the sound of Zach and Andrew kissing passionately in the kitchen can be heard.

"That sounds unsanitary," Amelia says. She's not sure if Zach's washed his hands either.

"I've gotten pretty good at pretending I can't hear them." Niesha takes a dainty sip of her coffee.

"So how'd you end up working here?" Amelia asks, desperate to keep their conversation going so her mind won't try to occupy itself conjuring up imagery to go with the audio from the kitchen.

"I'd spent my whole life dreaming of going home and reuniting with my family. When I found out it wasn't possible anymore, I was…in a dark place. Then a man came by. His name was Dandolo, and he'd taken charge of rebuilding the town. He even offered me my own house there, but I couldn't. There wasn't anything left for me there."

Now that's something Amelia can understand.

"Then he told me he was opening a coffee shop here in Ophir, and offered me a job. I took it, and here I am today. That's my story. Your turn." Niesha looks expectantly at Amelia.

"I lived here, I got bored, I left, my dad died, I came back, and soon I'll be leaving again. And I won't be coming back." Amelia's had that story pre-prepared for anyone who asks that she doesn't care to tell the details to.

"That's not fair!" Niesha reaches across the table and playfully shoves Amelia in the arm. "I told you my entire life story; you've got to give me more than that. What was growing up here like? Where did you go? What did you do?"

They talk long after their drinks are empty and the muffin is gone, until Zach and Andrew come out of the kitchen covered in flour.

"If you look like that, what does the kitchen look like?" Niesha says irritably.

"I'll clean it up," Andrew says placatingly. "Get this man a box of muffins."

Zach and Amelia drop off the muffins and coffee at the shop, where Amelia gets sucked into a discussion about the best tyre pressure for tackling the sand dunes to the north in the Lunae region. By the time she finally gets away, the day has gone, and she still hasn’t finished clearing out the shed.

-

There's a three-car pileup the next morning in the canyons an hour out from Ophir. The Technomancers are already in action by the time Amelia gets down to the shop, with the tow truck dispatched and three cars sent out to give a ride to the travellers not being airlifted to the hospital in Solis.

Shit like this happens all the time with tourists who assume there's going to be nobody around the corner in the tunnels, so the Technomancers have the situation under control and don't need another mechanic when Amelia goes to offer her services. However, Zach's spoiled them with daily coffees and snacks for too long, and at around ten thirty, they start trying to convince her to go to Noctis—so _that's_ the shop's name, or a part of it, at least—in his stead. She finally relents after Ian agrees to let her take one of the electric screwdrivers to replace the broken one in her tool kit.

"No Zach today?" Niesha's arranging the stacks of disposable cups and lids on the shelf so that they're perfectly aligned with each other. "That's a first."

"Car crash. Three cars, one totalled. The whole shop's elbow-deep in spare parts and engine grease."

"And you volunteered to do the coffee run?" Niesha raises an eyebrow.

Amelia scoffs. "Volunteer? Me? No, bribery was involved."

"That does sound more like you," Niesha says with a laugh. It's the second time Amelia's seen her do so, but the first time around, she'd been too distracted by Zach and Andrew making out next to her to fully appreciate the way the corners of Niesha's eyes crinkle, and the small dimple that forms on just one cheek. It makes Amelia want to give her more reasons to laugh.

"And I'll be in and out in record time without Zach trying to get a second job here by sucking up to one of the baristas. If you know what I mean." Amelia raises her eyebrows suggestively, and Niesha laughs until she's gasping for breath. Amelia mentally pats herself on the back—that's three for three now.

"Alright, I'll get the coffees ready," Niesha says when she gets herself back under control. "We've got croissants today; Andrew's still making them."

Niesha lines up eight cups and works the espresso machine with sure, dexterous fingers, steaming milk and pulling shots and whatever else goes into making a cup of coffee. Amelia has no idea what's going on, but she can't look away. Is this what Zach feels like when he comes to the store? No wonder he never wants to leave.

"What's that other coffee shop called?" Amelia asks to give herself something else to think about. "The ASC?" She'd seen the sign on the other side of the street when she'd stopped by the grocery store two days ago, but she hadn't gone inside.

"Not _the _ASC, just ASC," Niesha answers.

"What do the letters stand for?"

"Nobody knows."

"How many times do I have to say it?" Andrew shouts from the kitchen. Niesha's already shaking her head. "It stands for Abundance's Shittiest Coffee!"

Amelia lets out a snort of laughter before she can help herself.

Niesha gives her a pained look. "Please don't encourage him. One of these days, a customer's going to hear that and go running to Viktor. The man's rich and influential, and if Dandolo had to choose between pissing him off or firing us..."

"What customers?" Andrew comes out holding a tray of croissants that look crisp and flaky and smell like warm, buttery goodness. "The only other people who come here are Dandolo's friends, and I bet they’d only start calling it that too."

Now that Amelia thinks about it, she's never seen anyone else in the shop. "No offence, but how are you guys still even open?"

"Money laundering," Andrew promptly says, setting the tray on the counter and returning to the kitchen. "That, or illegal poker games in the basement after hours," he calls over his shoulder. "Or both! There's no reason it can't be both."

"Really?" Amelia raises an eyebrow.

"Probably not, but we've had a lot of quiet hours to come up with theories," Niesha says. "Although, Dandolo doesn't seem to care if we're making money or not. Zach's just about our only paying customer except for people who accidentally wander in and buy something because they feel weird about just walking out."

"Do people go to ASC? What do they do better?"

"Absolutely nothing," Andrew says, coming back with a second tray of croissants, "and if you go there, you're dead to me."

Naturally, Amelia goes to ASC right after delivering the coffee and croissants to the Technomancers.

The first thing she notices is the customers: there’s a lot of them. Being on the main street probably helps, as does the airy, spacious layout, so different to the dark cosiness of Noctis. Oddly enough, she finds herself wishing she was there instead, still talking to Niesha.

"Welcome to—oh, it’s you." At the register, one of four people behind the counter, is another old classmate, Alan. No wonder Zach and Andrew hate this place; Alan had been nowhere as charismatic as Andrew, but he still had a certain draw about him, the kind that attracted assholes and scumbags. Ten years later, and it looks like nothing's changed.

"So, what does it stand for?" Amelia asks instead of rising to the obviously-planted bait.

"What are you talking about?" Alan gives her a flat stare.

Amelia casts her eyes up at the sign above his head, only one of many prominently displayed throughout the store, and raises an eyebrow.

"It stands for class, and quality. Unlike the trash they serve at Noctis Labyrinthus where Zach's probably got you going. Now, either buy something or leave; you're getting in the way of the paying customers."

There's only one couple waiting behind Amelia who are looking at the display window of cakes and pastries and don't seem to have made up their mind yet, so she takes her sweet time looking thoughtfully at the menu before settling on the cheapest item, an espresso. Alan gives her a disdainful look—his default expression, really—and rings up the order before screaming at one of his unfortunate underlings to get it made.

Amelia knows nothing about coffee, and tries not to look surprised at the tiny cup she's given in case Alan's watching. He's busy listing every ingredient in each of the cakes to the couple and looking increasingly annoyed about it, but Amelia's not going to take the risk. She marches out of ASC with the cup, and straight back to Noctis.

"Hey, try this." Amelia sets the cup down on the counter in front of Niesha.

"Is that…coffee?"

"An espresso. Try it."

Niesha cautiously lifts the cup to her lips and takes a sip. "You got this from ASC, didn't you?" she says accusingly after a few seconds of deliberation.

"Traitor!" Andrew yells from the kitchen before coming out and brandishing a tea towel at Amelia in a vaguely threatening manner. "How could you do that to me? Do you remember Jeff?"

"That peppy, brown-haired kid who was always following you around?"

"Yeah, he came in here one day, bought one of everything we had on display, and took it right back to ASC where they tried to copy what we'd made."

"Leave it be, Andrew," Niesha says. "That was years ago, they haven't tried it again, and as far as we know, they didn't actually succeed in copying anything."

"Yes, because now they know we're watching them. And we can't ever stop, because that's when Alan will make his move." Andrew goes back to the kitchen as Niesha rolls her eyes.

"Well, that was fun, but I should probably get back to what I'm supposed to be doing," Amelia says. It's surprisingly hard for her to straighten up from the counter when she sees Niesha's face fall ever so slightly.

"And what’s that?" Niesha asks.

"Just looking through my dad's old stuff in our shed to see if there's anything worth keeping. Once I do that…I'll be gone. For good." She's said her goodbyes and made her peace with selling the house, so why does it feel like she's not ready to leave yet?

"There's an outdoor cinema at Sinai tonight if you want to come," Niesha calls out once Amelia's halfway to the door.

Amelia stops and slowly turns around. "With you?"

For a split second, Niesha looks like an ostrich caught in the headlights of a car interrupting its nighttime stroll down the highway, but she recovers quickly. "Yeah. And by that, I mean you can be the fourth wheel to my third on Zach and Andrew's date."

Amelia laughs, and doesn't even have to think twice before accepting the invitation. "It's a date."

-

She'd wanted to drive her own car to Sinai so she could leave early if things got boring, but after much pleading and guilt-tripping and some lame excuse about rising fuel prices from Zach, it's just easier for Amelia to give in and agree to drive all four of them there.

Zach and Andrew, of course, immediately proceed to get up close and personal with each other in the back seat. Amelia turns up the radio to as loud as she can stand it—it's an hour-long drive to Sinai, and if she can't hear anything and doesn't look in the rear-view mirror, she can pretend it's just her and Niesha in the car.

After the obligatory eyerolls and shared looks of resignation at Zach and Andrew's public displays of affection, Niesha leans her head against the passenger-side window and stares distantly out of it for the entire drive. The desert at sunset isn't all that spectacular to Amelia—it's all silhouettes and long shadows, and more creepy than anything else—but with Niesha busy watching it, Amelia can watch her.

The hour goes by all too quickly, and they're soon arriving at the small town of Sinai, built into the walls at the base of the plateau with the same name. The smooth cliff face is perfect for projecting a movie onto, which happens about once a month, bringing people from the neighbouring towns together.

Zach's brought two blankets, one for him and Andrew, and one for Amelia and Niesha. It's only fifteen minutes until the movie is scheduled to begin so all the good spots are taken, but they manage to find a space on the edge of the viewing area where they can all fit, far back enough that it won't be too much of a strain to see the whole screen.

Amelia and Niesha don't quite sit on opposite ends of the blanket, but there is a socially acceptable amount of space between them, unlike Zach and Andrew, who're already back in each other's laps. Though, they seem to be in good company, judging by the number of other couples around them more interested in each other than what's on the screen. Which makes no sense to Amelia—why drive all the way out here just to not watch the movie? And why take all the good spots?

Twenty minutes later, she has to admit that the movie's not that great—something about cowboys and aliens and clearly someone's wish fulfilment fantasy about being whisked away from here—but at least she can still have fun mentally pointing out its flaws to herself.

"Do you know what's going on?" Niesha whispers in Amelia's ear during a quiet moment, much closer to Amelia than she'd noticed.

"I think we're supposed to believe that's an alien," Amelia whispers back, narrowing her eyes at the 'alien' that just happens to look exactly like a sexy, barely-dressed human woman who, of course, is madly in love with the hero.

"If aliens look like that, I sure wouldn't mind being invaded."

Amelia bites down on a very uncharacteristic giggle that rises up in her throat. "You might need to have mind-melding sex with them, though." Or whatever is supposed to be happening on the screen.

"I'd give it a try, why not? I can be adventurous." She looks at Amelia as she says this, her eyes bright with anticipation. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips, and Amelia finds her eyes drawn to the movement.

Niesha leans in a little further, and Amelia wants to do the same, but first, she turns to look behind them.

Zach's fallen asleep on top of Andrew, and the only sign that Andrew's still awake is his hand gently rubbing circles on Zach's back.

"Coast clear?" Niesha whispers with a smile, so close now it would be easy for Amelia to lean forward and kiss her.

So she does.

Her eyes close of their own accord, and her entire world narrows to Niesha's hand gently cupping her cheek—callused, which surprises her until she remembers everything Niesha's been through to get here—and Niesha's lips on hers, soft and smooth and not at all wind-chafed.

When Amelia opens her eyes, Niesha's looking at her.

"Did you like that?" Niesha asks.

"I might have," Amelia says. "But I think you should do it again so I can be sure."

They never find out how the movie ends.

-

When the credits roll and the viewers who haven't fallen asleep or aren't too busy going from second base to third under the cover of darkness start leaving, Amelia decides then and there to ask the question she might not get the chance to ask again.

"Your place or mine?"

Niesha doesn't even hesitate. "It's going to have to be yours since I live with Andrew and I'm pretty sure his parents are home."

That throws Amelia for a second; she'd pictured Niesha as having a small but cosy house tucked away somewhere on the outskirts of town. "You live with Andrew?"

"Yeah, I used to live in the storeroom at the back of the shop, but then Andrew found out, and he asked his parents if I could move into their spare room. They said yes, and I've been living there for the past four years or so, since working in a coffee shop doesn't exactly make enough money to buy a house, even out here."

Amelia's hit by an overwhelming urge to give her house, the one she's never coming back to, to Niesha, but rather than scaring her off with that kind of talk—too much, too soon—Amelia just says, "My place it is."

She drops Zach and Andrew off at Zach's place, with Zach pretty much asleep on his feet the whole drive back and during the short walk into the house. Before he gets out, Andrew starts to say something about getting Niesha home, but Amelia just waves him off and says she'll take care of it. She waits until the door shuts behind Zach and Andrew to drive down the street and park outside her house.

Her bed's not really big enough for two since her dad had only made it with her in mind and not what she might be doing with future partners, but with one side against the wall, at least there's a smaller chance someone will fall off. Niesha proves to not only be a great kisser but also a woman of many other talents, and afterwards, she's a soft warmth in Amelia's bed that Amelia never wants to let go of.

"Stay," she murmurs into the hollow of Niesha's collarbone.

"I'm not the one who's leaving," Niesha says, her fingers combing through Amelia's hair.

It takes Amelia a moment to wade through the pleasant haze that’s settled in her mind to figure out what Niesha means. "There's nothing for me here."

"Nothing at all?"

To answer yes would be a lie, and maybe she's been lying to herself this whole time, but she'd left for a reason, and she knows that staying out of some sense of obligation to old friends or whatever would just make her miserable and resentful.

"I can't," she says. "I'm sorry."

Niesha sighs, a soft, regretful breath of air. "I wish I was as brave as you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You left behind everything you ever knew to venture into the unknown."

Amelia props herself up on one elbow. "I was a teenager with an itchy ass that couldn't stay in the one place for too long. Still kinda am. That's not bravery. What you did, on the other hand? Running away from that factory to live on the streets, then finding your way back home? Even if it didn't work out the way you wanted it to, that took real guts."

"That was just surviving."

"Looks the same from where I'm standing. You want to leave? Leave. What's stopping you?"

"Well, for one, I owe Dandolo for everything he did for me."

"Did he say that to you?"

"No, but he's the only reason I'm here today, and he did give me a job."

"That makes you his employee, not his slave."

"But I can't just leave without telling him, it wouldn't feel right."

"So tell him. If he hugs you and cries over you and tells you to be safe, you're good. If he gets mad about it, then it's probably a good thing you’re leaving."

"He's not the hugging and crying sort. But where would I even go?"

"Wherever you want. Watch a sunset from Mount Olympus? Catch a boat down the Argyre? Hop on a train across the Daedalia and get sunburn from riding on the roof trying to avoid the ticket inspectors?"

Niesha laughs. "I'd love to. I want to do all those things. I want to go so far out into the desert I won’t see another person for weeks, ride in a car with the windows down and feel the wind in my hair."

"Then come with me. For as long as you like.” Her chest aches at the thought of leaving without Niesha, which is just ridiculous considering she's spent the last ten years essentially on her own, but if this is what love feels like, no wonder Zach and Andrew can't bear to spend a moment apart. “I'll be back soon anyway."

"I thought you were never coming back?"

"And miss Zach and Andrew's wedding? It's gonna happen any day now, right? Who better to tell embarrassing stories about Zach at the reception than me? Then after that, I bet they'll want help building their house, probably with some stupid white picket fence, then their dog will need babysitting or some shit like that. Point is, we'll come back, but to come back, you gotta leave first."

"What'll we do for money?"

"There'll always be cars that need fixing, and that's the one thing I'm good at. And if we really start to hurt for money, we could settle somewhere for a couple of months and you could make a few coffees."

"I've always wanted to sing," Niesha says thoughtfully.

"Plenty of bars on the road with empty stages."

A smile slowly starts to form on Niesha's face. "I suppose there are."

-

Zach gives Amelia absolutely _tragic_ puppy eyes when she breaks the news later that morning, rivalled only by the look of utter desolation on Andrew’s.

"You were supposed to stay, not take off together," Zach says plaintively, confirming Amelia's suspicion that he'd been trying to set her up with Niesha in his own roundabout way.

It's Sunday, and they're gathered around Amelia's car as Niesha throws a bag containing her meagre belongings into the back seat. She'd called Dandolo earlier, only to be directed to his voicemail, and she'd left a message and agreed to leave anyway with a rebellious decisiveness that had put a smile on Amelia's face she hasn't been able to wipe off since.

"I thought you wanted to find a home?" Andrew asks Niesha.

"Home isn't always place," she says. "But don't worry, we'll be back." Niesha gives Andrew a kiss on the cheek, and one to Zach as well.

"When?" Zach asks.

"We'll come back when we come back,” Amelia says. “Here's my number, but if you know what's good for you, you won't call, and you won't write." She closes Zach's unresisting hand around a napkin she’d found in the kitchen and written her phone number on. "Let's go, Niesha, the open road awaits!"

The same excitement she'd felt the first time she'd left Ophir is running through her veins as she guns the engine and leaves the town behind in a cloud of dust. The tyres kick up sand and rocks as they speed down the highway, something Niesha probably hadn't taken into consideration when concocting her daydream of driving with the windows down, but her laugh is delighted and contagious, bright as the sun shining on their backs, and Amelia's never felt happiness like this before.


End file.
